Green Chile BBQ Soup
Green Chile BBQ Soup is a one-pot, wonderful way to use up leftover smoked barbecue pork butt, smoked chicken, or even a combination of the two! We love soup around here, especially soup that is full of flavor and, for me, ready for lots of toppings! This soup is slightly spicy; but you can control the heat by using more/less poblano pepper. We like ours on the spicy side, but this soup is super yummy, spicy or not!
My husband EJ spends a LOT of time barbecuing, grilling, and smoking meat all year round. Whether pork, chicken, ribs or beef he is all about it! And since it does take a good chunk of time to properly cook smoked meats, I really hate for any of it to go to waste. I have a few go-to recipes to use up the occasional leftover meat. But I have only recently put it into a soup.
What got me thinking about it was when I was recently organizing my freezer and saw several bags of leftover chopped smoked pork butt. I knew I needed to do something with it before it got freezer burned. Also my good friend Charlotte had recently brought us over some of her homemade barbecue soup when EJ was recovering from knee surgery. Her soup was delicious and sparked my creativity to come up with my own version.
So this Green Chile BBQ soup is the result and will now be on repeat in our house. If you don’t barbecue, no problem! Just pick up a pound or two of meat at your favorite barbecue restaurant. Chopped pork or chicken is perfect in it. Scoop a few spoonfuls of cooked rice into a bowl and ladle the soup over it. And YES to piling on all the toppings! Try it with shredded cheddar, sour cream, avocado, green onions, cilantro. And don’t forget a few drops of Yellowbird hot sauce and some blue corn tortillas on the side! So so good!
Green Chile BBQ Soup
Ingredients
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil
- 1 Tablespoon butter
- 1 sweet onion chopped
- 2 carrots peeled and chopped
- 1 or 2 poblano peppers chopped
- 2 cloves garlic minced; I use the Trader Joe's frozen cubes of garlic
- 2 teaspoons chili powder
- 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 Tablespoon Ranch dressing mix from a packet of Hidden Valley dried Ranch dressing mix
- 1 can chopped green chiles
- 1 cup salsa verde
- 6 cups chicken broth
- 2 cans white beans, drained I use Great Northern or Navy beans
- zest and juice of one large lime
- 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
- cooked rice for serving
- shredded cheddar cheese, sour cream, avocado, green onions, extra cilantro for toppings
Instructions
- Heat olive oil and butter over medium heat in a Dutch oven or large pot. Add the onion, carrots, and poblano peppers. Season with kosher salt and pepper and cook for about 5 minutes or so until veggies begin to soften. Add the garlic, chili powder, paprika, and oregano. Stir and cook another minute or two.
- Now add the Ranch dressing mix, can of green chiles, salsa verde and broth and stir well. Partially cover pot and cook over medium low heat for about 10 minutes and then add your barbecue meat and white beans in. Simmer another 5-10 minutes, to warm the meat and beans up. Can leave on the stove over low/simmer heat, stirring occasionally, to keep warm until ready to serve.
- Just before serving, add in the lime juice and chopped cilantro and stir well.
- To serve, place a few spoonfuls of cooked rice into each serving bowl and ladle soup into bowls. Top with cheddar cheese, sour cream, avocado or guacamole, green onions and additional cilantro. Finish off with a few drops of hot sauce and some blue corn tortilla chips on the side. Enjoy!